Bonus Babies
The Anthem Award winning BONUS BABIES podcast is the only one of its kind that features the compelling true-life hard-hitting stories of those with a lived foster care experience and the people who care for them––all via the unique 360* lens of a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer. Through raw first-hand accounts, BONUS BABIES reveals the daunting complexity of the foster care world while documenting the challenges, failures and successes of the system as well as the people and the agencies involved. The creator and host, Jayne Amelia Larson, is a CASA - a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer for youth in foster care. In the same way a CASA works, she explores all things in the foster care maze by talking to kids, parents, caregivers, attorneys, social workers, therapists, adoptees, adoptive parents, members of community and social programs...anybody and everybody who will speak to her to keep the conversation open and the information flowing about all things CASA––to give a forum to help people understand what it's like to have a lived foster care experience. Original music by Christina Apostolopoulos. Emma Karpman is our Social Media Manager. Audio engineering and mixing by Adam "Yukon" Harr of Blue Oak Mastering. Executive Producer is Jake Eberle. Cover art by John Crowther.
Bonus Babies
Dennis Rosenbaum : I Am Talking About Resilience
Jayne Amelia speaks with Dennis Rosenbaum who was a school psychologist for 38 years and then became a CASA.
"I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in a middle-class Jewish household where the importance of education was emphasized. Yet, as a young person who came of age in the 50’s and 60’s, the racial disparity in opportunity available to some people and not others became uncomfortably apparent to me. The inclination for me to do something constructive to change that reality was fostered by the inspirational civil rights and political leaders of the time. My pursuit of higher education has taken me to Nashville, Tennessee; Oxford, Ohio; and to my home of the last 46 years—Los Angeles, California. I feel privileged as a CASA to be able to extend whatever knowledge and skills I possess on behalf of young people who have been neglected, abandoned and marginalized. The wonderful opportunities afforded me as an educator, primarily as a school psychologist, in a large urban school district has prepared me for the challenges in my current work. When I’m not engaged in volunteer work, I can be found enjoying the company of good friends and family or just shooting baskets at the local gym or neighborhood park."
JFK's Day of Affirmation speech in Cape Town: "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice. He sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance."
See bonusbabies.org to learn more about what we are doing and please donate to support us by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution. EVERY PENNY OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION GOES TO RECORDING AND PLATFORMING THESE STORIES. Yeah!
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